Exploring schizophrenic thinking in older adolescents with the WAIS,Rorschach and WIST

Literature that addresses the diagnosis of mental disorder in adolescents strongly suggests that it may not be possible to do so. Schizophrenic thinking, in particular, has been seen as generally characteristic of adolescents. Making judgments of specific responses from the Rorschach, the WAIS, and the WIST, 10 expert clinicians were able to make judgments with regard to 12 adolescents in the 16–19 age range that were suprisingly accurate in discriminating among schizophrenics, nonschizophrenic hospitalized adolescents, and a normal control group. Results indicate that schizophrenic thinking is not necessarily characteristic of adolescents and that information from the WIST may be helpful in identifying schizophrenic adolescents.     

The effects on eating of dietary restraint,anxiety, and hunger

In this study a comparison was made between the amounts eaten by restrained and unrestrained eaters following an anxiety-induction procedure. Subjects' level of perceived hunger was assessed and the interactive effects on eating of anxiety and perceived hunger were examined. Results revealed a significant three-way interaction. Unrestrained subjects did not alter their eating in response to either anxiety or hunger. When relaxed, restrained subjects ate more when hungry than when not hungry. However, in restrained subjects, anxiety appeared to counteract the disinheriting effect of hunger, so that anxious hungry subjects ate less than relaxed hungry subjects and the same amount as relaxed subjects who were not hungry. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Self-treatment of bulimia nervosa: A pilot study

Twenty-eight patients with ICD-10 bulimia nervosa or atypical bulimia nervosa were given a cognitive-behavioral treatment handbook and were reassessed 4-6 weeks later, On a clinician-rated global improvement scale 12 patients had much improved and 8 patients had somewhat improved. Fifteen patients were abstinent of vomiting or laxatives at reassessment as opposed to five patients before treatment. Of the 21 patients who were hinging before treatment, 7 had a 75– 700% reduction of binges and 5 had a 50–75% reduction of binges. Patients' nutritional knowledge increased significantly. A patient-administered handbook may be a useful first intervention in the treatment of patients with bulimia nervosa. © 1993 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Latina mothers' help seeking at a school-based mutual support group

Low-income Latino parents constitute a vulnerable population who are underserved by traditional mental health services but difficult to recruit to more culturally sensitive community interventions. In order to identify factors that may facilitate participation, a cognitive-motivational framework was employed to study help seeking at a school-based mutual support group (MSG) for low-income Latino parents. Phone interview data from 75 Latina mothers generally supported hypothesized differences between nonattenders and at tenders. Specifically, attenders initially reported (a) greater parenting stress, (b) less confidence in parenting abilities but comparable psychological coping resources, (c) less satisfaction with and greater need for social support, (d) less negative attitudes toward help seeking, and (e) more previous school involvement. A discriminant analysis revealed that need for parenting advice and prior school involvement accounted for 34% of the variance between attenders and nonattenders. Implications for enhancing program utilization are discussed.     

Tumor mutational burden and purity adjustment before and after treatment with temozolomide in 27 paired samples of glioblastoma: a prospective study

Treatment of glioblastoma (GBM) remains a challenging task, with limited treatment options, none offering a cure. Immune therapy has proven effective across different cancers with remarkable response rates. Tumor mutational burden (TMB) is a marker of response, but technical and methodological differences in TMB estimates have made a proper assessment and comparison challenging. Here, we analyzed a prospective collection of paired samples from 35 patients with newly diagnosed GBM, all of whom were wild‐type (WT) for isocitrate dehydrogenase, before and after treatment with radiotherapy and temozolomide. Seven patients (20%) had O6‐methylguanine‐DNA methyltransferase‐methylated tumors. Six patients (17%) had two relapse surgeries, and tissue from all three surgeries was collected. We found that accurate evaluation of TMB was confounded by high variability in the cancer cell fraction of relapse samples. To ameliorate this, we developed a model to adjust for tumor purity based on the relative density distribution of variant allele frequencies in each primary–relapse pair. Additionally, we examined the mutation spectra of shared and private mutations. After tumor purity adjustment, we found TMB comparison reliable in tumors with tumor purity between 15% and 40%, resulting in 27/35 patients (77.1%). TMB remained unchanged from 0.65 mutations per megabase (Mb) to 0.67/Mb before and after treatment, respectively. Examination of the mutation spectra revealed a dominance of C > T transitions at CpG sites in both shared and relapse‐private mutations, consistent with cytosine deamination and the clock‐like mutational signature 1. We present and apply a cellularity correction approach that enables more accurate assessment of TMB in paired tumor samples. We did not find a significant increase in TMB after correcting for cancer cell fraction. Our study raises significant concerns when determining TMB. Although a small sample size, corrected TMB can have a clinical significance when stratifying patients to experimental treatment, for example, immune checkpoint therapy.     

Streptococcus pneumoniae Serotypes Associated with Death,South Africa, 2012–2018

The Streptococcus pneumoniae polysaccharide capsule plays a role in disease severity. We assessed the association of serotype with case-fatality ratio (CFR) in invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and meningitis in South Africa, 2012–2018 (vaccine era), using multivariable logistic regression by manual backward elimination. The most common serotypes causing IPD were 8 and 19A. In patients <15 years of age, serotypes associated with increased CFR in IPD, compared with serotype 8 and controlling for confounding factors, were 11A, 13, 19F, 15A, and 6A. None of these serotypes were associated with increased CFR in meningitis. Among IPD patients >15 years of age, serotype 15B/C was associated with increased CFR. Among meningitis patients of all ages, serotype 1 was associated with increased CFR. PCV13 serotypes 1, 3, 6A, 19A, and 19F should be monitored, and serotypes 8, 12F, 15A, and 15B/C should be considered for inclusion in vaccines to reduce deaths caused by S. pneumoniae.